September 21, 2012

My stroked mind is brought to attention on asking why are
there some people who pretend they care but in reality they don’t. Once
stripped of the earthly drappings, true colors will come.

It has always been that way, the way I see it. The real soul
intent of an individual emerges in uncompromising situations. There are times
that they are obvious and at times not. The best way for us to be ready for it
is that we shouldn’t expect too much. Expecting too much somehow lowers our
self-dependency.

Another way to ready ourselves is the other way around.
Expect the worst. It may sound funny but preparedness to a person’s motive or
agenda is best done in this way. Expecting per se is lessened for what is
readied upon is the worst.

More saddening is the people close to you are the ones
responsible for this kind of unwanted attitude. All my stroked being could do to those I mentioned is pray.

Break out your espresso machine for
this one or just make really strong coffee with a small amount of water. Break cinnamon stick
into small pieces and add to hot espresso. Allow to cool for 1 minute. Add crème de cacao
and brandy, and stir gently. Pour into cute demitasse cups. Whip the cream, and
float some cream on top of each cup. For looks, garnish with grated chocolate or fancy
chocolate curls. Multiply proportions by six and it's perfect for a party. Serves 2.

Black Forest Coffee

Black Forest Coffee

Ingredients:

6 oz Fresh brewed coffee

2 tb Chocolate syrup

1 tb Maraschino cherry juice

Whipped cream

Shaved chocolate/chips

Maraschino cherries

Combine coffee, chocolate syrup, and cherry juice in a cup; mix well.
Top with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and a cherry.

Cajun Coffee

Cajun Coffee

Ingredients:

3 c Hot Strong Coffee

6 tb Molasses

6 tb Dark Rum (If Desired)

Whipped Cream

Nutmeg (Freshly Ground)

Combine coffee and molasses in a saucepan. Heat, stirring, until
molasses is dissolved and coffee is very hot. Do not allow to boil. If desired place 1 Tbls. rum
in each mug. Add coffee. Top with whipped cream; sprinkle with nutmeg. Do not stir
before drinking.

September 20, 2012

Every precious dwelling place deserves the best 'lock and key' and its
'keeper' to protect all the material, spiritual and moral valuables within it.

Our physical body being the temple of our soul and the greatest
masterpiece The Supreme Being has ever created is designed with a specialized
'key' located at the innermost core of it.
A powerful source of life that emits warmth to our basic instincts thus
signals what and who can actually enter the sacred 'premises'. It is called
'heart'.

Our soul, our heart and our body interpreted consecutively as the lock,
the key and the keeper. Together they perform perfection... a life measured on
its highest esteem... a MAGIC!

So who would be needing wings to fly or magic and powerful wands to
turn pumpkins to sparkling coach or fairy dust to make wishes come true?..
bibbidi-bobbidy-boo!

I would like to state a small discourse regarding matters of
the heart. The expression of one’s feelings, to be precise. If we are to look
and emphasize more of our subject, let’s say that the given setting is now. It
underlies various mitigating factors. The question emerges: in the expression
of affection towards one, do I go on with what I feel or should I consider what
society morally tells me to do?

For a stroked guy with limited wisdom like me, I’d rather go
with what I feel. Even if it’s entirely wrong. It is/was society that marked it
as wrong, anyway. It is the same crossing entity which captures us and injects
us with morality.

Our freedom to express love becomes one-sided. The
distinction of what is right or wrong in the expression of love acts like a
blindfold. It holds and bars our thirsting desire to express our feelings. Take
off that cloud of morality and express that true love.

Brain faculties acting in such an erratic way giving me
fear. Fear thus makes me thought of having accepting the reality that almost
every one close to my heart have left me. The bitter truth slowly sank through
my being. Is it going to be like this each time?

Accepting is the hardest part of it. You consciously know
this possibility, but why does it have to be so soon? Why are there
circumstances that binds you and holds you together, then, in a blink of an
eye, you find yourself all alone. The memories are all that is left hanging in
your thoughts.

Again, for me, this halt made me respond to the call to
enjoy and cherish the people who are still around me. We won’t last long just
like the others so might as well treasure every passing moment of it. Don’t let
time hinder you from loving a little bit more. It lessens the fear.

Watching the finale of the 2012 US Masterchef was an eye
opener for me. The winner, Christine Ha, displayed not just her culinary
prowess but her being able to inspire other people. Christine, for your
information, is blind. Well, anybody can cook even when blind, but to compete
against some of the great amateur cooks across US is certainly a great feat.

I also watched her Masterchef journey. Christine Ha is
picture of hope and determination. She served as an inspiration to all in
pursuing their dreams in spite of the hardships, in her case, the handicap of
being visually impaired.

Christine Ha proved that obstacles are just like dust that
needs to be wiped out. It is through our motivation and unending will that the
possibility of reaching our goal in life is achieved. May those hindrances turn
into something positive that would make our lives much happier and worth
living.

As James Ingram would ask, how do you keep the music
playing? Being in a relationship is quite challenging, especially in terms of
keeping it in trying, complicated and modern lives that we live in. The way our
modern tradition revolutionized a mean or two affecting our personal lives, our
relationships to be precise, now are entirely different.

Love becomes secondary. It just sprouts out after our need
for money, power and other reassuring things. I’m just being true here that
those relationships today are built and made just for the sake of an agenda.
Labelling?

A relationship based on complete trust and pure love, sad to
say, is rare nowadays. That is why love quotes, relationship quotes and such
the like clog social media sites nowadays. It tells us that having a
relationship isn’t about money or other modernized means alone. It’s about the
giving of pure and unblemished affection to the one needing it.

September 19, 2012

Ambitions. They are processes which bring out our attitude
toward a goal; they could be transformed into success, contentment or self
satisfaction. Ambitions are resulted in proper handling and good execution of
our actions.

More often than not, an ambition brings out hunger and
further clouds our reasoning. It blinds our normal way of thinking as well how
we interact with other human beings. Having an ambition isn’t that bad as long
as it is done and reached in a humane way.

It is also a way to gauge our want to succeed in life or
this to make our lives better. Our approach or how well we treat our
aspirations makes up who we are. Our success or downfall on our ambitions
should not pinpoint to someone else’s cause but rather to us and to no one else
alone. They are best achieved through a subjective pattern of living. Ambitions
are good when they are good.

This would sound blasphemous to many of you but at least, be
subjective and perceive the reality. As only a piece of my handful re-post, I’d
like to discuss the over debated, limitless and boring to some (I don’t want to
be disrespectful), subject of God.

If he exists, as countless scholars from the academe and the
religious have proven in their own or consensual procedures, I would like to
ask, does he/she/it care at all? The presence of famine, small and large scale
terrorism, greed, lust, and other signs of an unruly world can conclude that we
are of complete turmoil. Does God know this? Is he willing to save us? And if
salvation is true, when will it be?

Whether God has its plans or the question of mere existence
of him is under scrutiny, all I can say is do good for yourself and for others.
I believe that God, existent or not, would be glad if we give and share our
goodwill to others so that we may be worth with or without God.

Who can forget the US’s Zero Factor? It gives a chilling effect stating that no US President elected in a year ending in zero left the White House alive.

It started in 1940 when Henry Harrison caught a cold that drastically developed into pneumonia that eventually led to his untimely death only a month after his inauguration.

1860 was Abraham Lincoln’s year. I guess we all know already how he died. He was shot at a theater in Washington. 1880 was for James Garfield. He was also shot by a guy named Guiteau. He hardly reached six (6) months in office when he died. William Mckinley came to office in 1900. He too suffered that brutal fate when he was shot by an anarchist at an exposition in New York.

US’s 1920 President, Warren Harding also died at a speaking engagement tour in the West. Speculations about the cause of his illness and death are still unknown up to now.

The US President that was re-elected four (4) times, Franklin Theodore Roosevelt, was elected in 1940. He died in 1945 after collapsing at his work desk at the summer White House. The next victim would be JFK (John F. Kennedy). He was elected in 1960. He was later assassinated. Then both Presidents Thomas Jefferson (1800) and James Monroe (1820) were believed to be the ones who escaped the Zero Factor.

President Ronald Reagan (1980) survived an assassination attempt and George W. Bush (2000), aside from nearly getting hit by a flying shoe from an irrate Iraqi journalist in Baghdad, have all so far been saved from the “death list”.

I had a great chance to watch a new TV series, Perception
played by Eric Mccormack and Rachel Leigh Cook. It’s quite interesting for it
focuses on how our brain works both in the conscious and subconscious state.

They have an episode which talks about reality and its meaning
to an ordinary mind as perceived through a neuro-science professor. He further
said that reality is not what is at all. They just are products of our minds
all rumbled up together conditioning those to be as it is. But what if those
are just unconditioned products then eluded by the brain? Certain events such
as hallucinations and dreams instigate.

For all we know, it is real. It was just formed in an unorthodox
manner. We sometimes mistake it as not being classified as reality. They do
hurt, add blurredness and always left alone. Our perception of reality is
cornered to rely on our senses. Understanding how the mind works is like seeing
the meaning of reality.

It is almost a way of life on a rather-not-so complicated term, the
need and practice for us to look at the past.
Use needlessly our Basal Ganglias and reminisce once in a while. Although it is more often, we do admit that
what we have right now in the present is or was largely because of the
past. And that the differences and
reality in the present is or were mainly contributed by the past. Looking closely, the past is inevitable (not
to mention in this analysis is the value of time) to all of us. The simple
“tick” of a clock or a second gone is considered as “past”. But how about the
future?

We only come to admire the grandeur and the wholeness effect of the
past when we open our senses to it.
Aside from the fascinating world of science, history perhaps is one of
the best things that ever happened to human existence. …..nah, let’s forget about it, it’s history
anyway. We can’t redo what is done. More importantly, we should treasure the
things that we owe our lives to. Again,
what we are now in the present is primarily because of what we were or what
we’ve done in the past.

Living in the past cannot be bad at all. Just embrace what you have right
now and be thankful for it.

September 18, 2012

In addition to my search for what is the subconscious
unknown entity only known as mere ideas, I am drawn to post this quite
intriguing question; are all things existent or not, have and end? My limited
thinking brings me back repeatedly to the reality that there is absolutely none
that lasts forever.

This idealism brings speck of hope in all of us if we are to
look in a more positive perspective. All our problems, worries and anxiety are
just temporary. They exist maybe to test our human adaptability to pressure or
being into tight circumstances. Emerging into these temporary instances or
being jailed unto those asserts what kind of person are we. It thus, makes or
breaks us.

But no matter how intense they are or how enormous is it,
don’t let them ruin you. Just as stated earlier, these worries are just
temporary and will not last long. It all too shall come to pass.

In my own belief, I had my share of what this life has to
offer, at least temporarily or those sheltered in my stroked being. I obviously
can’t say that mistakes are all bad for some of them were mistakes learned and
remembered as lessons in life.

It is quite true that God or somebody up there allows us to
make mistakes sometimes. Looking closely, it is through them that our minds are
opened to the realization that each one of us can turn those mishaps into
something beneficial. We just have to develop looking through the bright and beneficial
side of things.

Being able to recover from a drastic event in life and
turning it to your advantage emits strength and wilful disposition. Lessons in
life don’t have to be taught in school always for experience alone is always said
to be the best teacher. Learn life by experiencing it to the fullest.

It is that time of the year once again when people are busy as ants
preparing for this grand event. Each one is in a festive mode. All of a sudden,
problems and worries are taken aside, issues are taken in high hopes of being
resolved, and for once in every year in man’s existence in this world, there is
love and peace all over. Christmas it
is.

To some, it is an opportunity
and a chance to give hope one more try to make its way through our hearts. Luckily enough, this miraculous day does not
let us down. More issues are addressed, in all aspects of human condition at
least, even for a day.

Our personalities can ever be so grateful in this wonderful event that
enveloped us. And just like a small kid that pulls her mother’s skirt to ask or
beg, we sometimes do wish that Christmas will ideally be with us all year long
for it gives joy, hope and peace to all.

September 17, 2012

"one calm night in fairyland"

9x12 , colored pencil on paper

March 11, 2005

by: Antonette Victoria Buenaventura

Being my elder sister's 'shadow and echo', I literally
copied whatever she did and almost everything she said in my presence. So when
she started schooling at the age of 5, I did too, attending the same classes
with her as 'saling pusa' as elders call it that time. I was only 3 years old
then.

There's this retro story my mom would always tell. She said
from out of the blue, I told my teacher, "Ma’am, my name is Wendy and I
live with the elves in mushroom houses". Funny how 'big' people reacted on
it, that my teacher even worriedly told my mom the possibility that me having
imaginary friends.

No. It's a world I created where I won't be requiring my
'ate' (sister) to look up to and get my personality from. It's a world where I am me.

In my 39 years of existence in this pseudo world or ours,
there is only one thing I didn't outgrow. Those years of 'pain and gain' that never
stopped me from believing. I do believe in fairies... I do... I do.

I don’t know but my being rude to literary rules dominated once again.
Pardon me for being shallow. It’s just that I was inspired by the flash of
charismatic persona encased in an unnatural body. An angel, I guess.

Hearing and feeling the windy rain again reminded me of a
reality that we have to face – life’s troubles and worries. We are bombarded
by, make or destroy us, we can choose to deny it or embrace it, face it or pass
it. For our betterment, some of us find a source of strength in those.

It acts like a shadow hounding us. I, wonder, who causes
them in the first place? Is it us or some external factor? Can this ever end?
If it will, when will it be? Raising queries such those adds up to our worries.
Thus, leads me to an immediate solution to this dilemma. Just try to stop
asking questions. Searching answers to those questions worries and troubles us
more adding insult to injury. And how can knowledge fortify itself without the
existence of ignorance? Make your questions worth. Don’t make it too absurd to
justify. Make it tangible.

Our troubles and worries are, to say the least, all of our
same doings. Taking full and humane responsibility in dealing with them by
seeing them as part of your life or having them beside you to challenge the
‘YOU’ from within is a great way to start overcoming and declaring
triumph over it.

I’m once again being raped and molested by unfortunate
events. At times that I crave for abundant ideas, it is there that nothingness
came. It mauled my shanty piece of mind and tried to ruin my hopes of being
somebody.

Even my stroked being wasn’t spared. It manipulated my body
by inviting it to be still and do nothing in spite numerous calls from my
telling it to move a limb. I must admit that adhering to these made me thought
of the future. I may not be as I am right now for fear of losing everything.

I instantly grab, tied and threw out those random thoughts
and decided not to go with ideas of those kind. Tests come really unto you when
you least expect it. It attacks more on your weaknesses. So it’s best to be
always equipped with strong will and perseverance. Having a clear frame of mind
would be well welcomed.

Gasping for that ‘second wind’ as if it was true, I managed
again to burst out realities, fictions and some quite obvious but unseen
happenings in life. And again, forgive my deepened operatic insanity.

Can you explain the unexplained? Yes. The fact that it was
unexplained is a mere explanation.

-0-

Which value most today? Skill or attitude?

-0-

Try this for a change...listen to Ebben – Le Andro Lontana

-0-

Failure is not an option. Nobody opts to fail, in the first
place.

-0-

Dearness comes
worthiness.

-0-

Never give people false hopes. Don’t aggravate their current
expectations by presenting them with a hoax one.

September 16, 2012

I would like to state a small discourse regarding matters of
the heart. The expression of one’s feelings, to be precise. If we are to look
and emphasize more of our subject, let’s say that the given setting is now. It
underlies various mitigating factors. The question emerges: in the expression
of affection towards one, do I go on with what I feel or should I consider what
society morally tells me to do?

For a stroked guy with limited wisdom like me, I’d rather go
with what I feel. Even if it’s entirely wrong. It is/was society that marked it
as wrong, anyway. It is the same crossing entity which captures us and injects
us with morality.

by AVB

Our freedom to express love becomes one-sided. The
distinction of what is right or wrong in the expression of love acts like a
blindfold. It holds and bars our thirsting desire to express our feelings. Take
off that cloud of morality and express that true love.

Why do we promise or swear? Is it some sort of assurance or
guaranty we give to assert something to another? Is it a form of temporary
withdrawal from reality? An escape mechanism perhaps?

Why do we say we do, but we really don’t? Or why is it that
we don’t but we actually do? We say we can but we can’t or the other way
around. There are things we must but instead, we mustn’t.

Every word and action counts. You are responsible for it.
Try not lashing out false hopes and broken promises. It affects your being in
return. It also damages your and others’ reputation. Learn to value those.
Simple or how complicated they may be, they are images of the real you as
perceived by others. It further makes you worthy of trust from other
individual.

We cannot expect one to always adhere on what you say, so
please, don’t break that promise.